Electronics, Music and Technology

Pinball

My father and I work hard to maintain our personal collection of pinball machines. For us, they aren’t collection objects or show pieces; these are pinball machines ready to be played.

Who are we?

Mechanically inclined, my father enjoys everything involving keeping a machine mechanically functional, and playing fast. He makes sure that all our machines are cleaned, waxed, and with fresh rubbers, keeping gameplay on all our machines as fast and exciting as possible. After our recent Medusa restoration, he’s also tried on the cabinet restoration hat.

My electronics background lends me a different set of skills, and when the machines stop dinging, I get down to business. We’ve seen so many different points of failure, but after over 3 years of owning tables, we have a pretty good background to draw from.

Meet the Machines

Our current collection consists of 10 machines, 8 of which are in the Silver Ball Arcade, 2 which we had to find friends to borrow them *;

Swords of Fury

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Fish Tales

Embryon

Vector

Xenon *

Medusa

Centaur

Gorgar *

Space Station

We pride ourselves with the fact that all of these machines are in near-fully functional condition, ready to be played.

History

Like many, we began with older electromechanical (EM) games, but within a year we had gotten a taste of solid state (SS) games, and from then on we’ve been collecting SS machines.

The Silver Ball Arcade

Not a commercial establishment, but a fitting name for a popular Friday night hangout. It started with thinking “you know what would look cool? Blacklights.” Not long after, glow in the dark and fluorescent paints began appearing, with lettering and design to follow. A lucky find while buying a machine resulted in two laser projectors being added, providing starbursting and sound responsive shape effects.

The look is continuously evolving, and when time permits, an expansion may very well allow for easier access to the machines!